Welcome to the new GCN.com

This month marks a significant turning point for GCN, as we unveil a redesign of our print and online platforms that reflects a sharpened focus on the changing technology, tools and tactics used in public-sector IT.

In doing so, we want to zero in on what matters most on a practical basis to agency IT managers, whose jobs involve devising the technology systems and applications needed to make public-sector programs more productive and a better value for taxpayers.

We will cover the technology challenges of those who are charged day in and day out with evaluating requirements handed down from policymakers, identifying and sourcing the best available products and services, and integrating them into agency systems.

We will analyze public-sector efforts in technology fields such as cloud computing, big data, cybersecurity and mobile computing, and provide case narratives of how agencies faced crucial decision points and what technologies and tactics they used.

Our editorial mix will include explanatory pieces, analyses of IT data trends and commentaries, including blogs on the mobile tech front, cybersecurity tactics and emerging technologies for public-sector IT shops.

You will find examples of our new approach online and in the current print edition of GCN. In our lead story this month, we detail features of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system that will be most critical to public-sector organizations. Elsewhere, we show how the city of Minneapolis’ IT managers solved a problem that sooner or later will confront most cities: how to avoid overwhelming civic call centers with mobile phone calls.

Few projects or IT teams better represent GCN’s focus than the winners of this year’s GCN Awards, whose profiles we feature this month. The 2012 winning projects show how government agencies are using keystone technologies like mobile and cloud to finally crack some of government’s most historically intractable IT problems.

In one example, a team from Arlington National Cemetery turned around a paper-based recordkeeping disaster using best business practices and mobile technology. In another, the Marine Corps modernized its tactical supply chain using cloud computing tactics. There are many more featured this month.

By focusing on the technologies used in these and other public-sector projects, we hope to provide our readers a source of practical analysis and expertise tailored to the often unique requirements of public sector IT. It’s a story that involves some the most compelling technology challenges of our times – and one we look forward to telling.

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is editor-in-chief of GCN. Follow him on Twitter: @Paul_GCN.